Younger Brother - Vaccine

Vaccine represents the third instalment of the collaboration between Simon Posford (Hallucinogen) and Bneji Vaugnan (Prometheus). Since 2003 the pair has gained a steady cult following due to their unique brand of downtempo ambient psytrance. However, Vaccine sees them continue the trend started with The Last Days of Gravity, to a more straight forward songwriting approach. With ex Leftfield vocalist, Ru Campbell, the duo have attempted to weave together the influences of electronica, world m...

Vaccine represents the third instalment of the collaboration between Simon Posford (Hallucinogen) and Bneji Vaugnan (Prometheus). Since 2003 the pair has gained a steady cult following due to their unique brand of downtempo ambient psytrance. However, Vaccine sees them continue the trend started with The Last Days of Gravity, to a more straight forward songwriting approach. With ex Leftfield vocalist, Ru Campbell, the duo have attempted to weave together the influences of electronica, world music and psychedelic rock into a Pink Floyd style concept album; but the resulting offering falls short of its lofty ambitions by quite a considerable margin.

The fundamental problem with Vaccine is that the skill of writing more conventional songs is a very different talent to that of creating electronica, and it's a discipline that the pair appears to be still getting to grips with. For all the album's crisp production and expansive pallet of sounds, the lack of invention on show makes the listening experience an incredibly tedious affair.

Throughout the album, the seed of an idea is often sewn within the opening minutes of a song and then is rarely expanded upon. A perfect example of this would be on 'Safety in numbers'; a track, that with the use of an electronic voice, sits awkwardly in between the Doors 'Riders of the Storm' and Air's 'Kelly, watch the stars'.

The fine line Younger Brother tread between inspiration and plagiarism is pushed to almost breaking point with the song 'Train'. A track so much in debt to Pink Floyd I had to check it wasn't a cover from the back end of Wish You Were Here. From the subject matter right down to the guitar sound, the Floyd have clearly made their mark. Even the album's cover art is designed by the legendary creator of Pink Floyd covers, Storm Thorgerson. Vaccine is also lyrically weak throughout, with predictable cliched lines offering little in the way of a distraction from the unspontaneous song structures.

Listening to the album you begin to ask yourself the question, why on earth did they bother? The two have made their names separately as the purveyors of psytrance, and with Younger Brothers initial release they took the psychedelic elements and combined them with more ambient sounds to great effect. But this movement to a more conventional style is bound to lose a large percentage of their current fan base. I'm not suggesting artists should not attempt to expand their sound by exploring new musical avenues; but if Younger Brother want to replace those fans lost with a new audience, they will have make sure they have fully mastered the tools with which they want to ply their new trade. With Vaccine, they unfortunately have not.